Six weeks before Molly Ticehurst was murdered, she texted a friend: "If I end up dead, he 100% did it."
The childcare educator's former boyfriend Daniel Billings had been tormenting her and threatening to kill her for months when she revealed her fears to her friend on March 4, 2024.
When Ticehurst sought an apprehended violence order in April, she alleged Billings had raped her, intimidated her, smashed her car window and killed her dachshund puppy.
She told officers he had also repeatedly laid out his plans to kill her, saying he would climb through her bedroom window as she slept.
"I will come in the middle of the night... I will get to you if that is the last thing I do," Ticehurst told police of Billings' threat.
"The police won't stop me, I will get to you quicker than they will."
At 11.27pm on April 21, 2024, Billings did just that, according to a 17-page statement of agreed facts tendered to the Local Court.
It took exactly 59 seconds for him to break into Ticehurst's home, stab her 15 times with a hunting knife and then return to his car.
Frenzied path of physical, psychological violence
Billings' frenzied path of physical and psychological violence was revealed in court for the first time on Friday, after he pleaded guilty to Ticehurst's murder in her Forbes home in central western NSW.
The 30-year-old, who is in custody in the supermax wing at Goulburn jail, also admitted four other charges including breaching an apprehended violence order, property damage and animal cruelty.
He told police he killed Ticehurst's puppy with a hammer soon after she broke up with him in June 2023.
Another 12 charges, including several sexual assault and stalking offences, were dropped in exchange for the murder plea.
Ticehurst's mother sat in the small country courtroom watching the plea with her hand over her mouth.
'I've just murdered my ex-girlfriend'
Billings, who appeared on-screen wearing prison greens with dreadlocked hair and a small moustache, appeared calm as his legal aid solicitor confirmed the pleas.
He spoke only to say he could hear the proceedings.
"Yes, Your Honour," Billings said, acknowledging Magistrate Michael Maher.
Ticehurst, 28, became the face of a growing national movement against domestic and gendered violence, particularly as Billings was free on bail when he killed her.
A local court registrar had granted bail a fortnight before the murder, despite Billings facing several counts of raping Ticehurst and a string of other domestic violence offences.
Her murder sparked changes to NSW laws, including stripping registrars of the power to grant bail, "show cause" thresholds for domestic violence-related bail applications and electronic monitoring for accused people.
The pleas came more than 18 months after Billings was charged with murder, following lengthy legal negotiations and a string of adjournments.
Billings always denied raping Ticehurst, the court document said, and left several hand-written notes to friends and family on the day of the murder, including one saying "Innocent!!!"
He also recorded videos in the lead-up to the murder and in the aftermath, the court document said.
"I've just murdered my ex-girlfriend," he said in one video.
"[I] cannot believe I just did that."
About 50 Forbes locals gathered in the park outside the courthouse to support the Ticehurst family, some wearing t-shirts saying: "She Matters."
The crowd burst into applause as Ticehurst's family emerged from the court after the plea.
Her bereaved father Tony became emotional when asked how he would remember his daughter.
"I would break down trying to tell you," he told reporters.
The matter was adjourned for arraignment in the NSW Supreme Court on December 12.
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